ESO Season 2 release time: Echoes of Skyrim starts Oct. 21 at 1 p.m. ET with free solo dungeons and a new Tome

The Elder Scrolls Online turns a new page on Oct. 21. Here’s exactly when Season Two starts in your time zone, what’s free and what the new Tome gives you.

What time does ESO Season 2 start?

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, at 1 p.m. ET. That’s 10 a.m. PT, 6 p.m. in the UK and 7 p.m. in Central Europe, since both regions are still on summer time that week. ZeniMax Online Studios calls it the launch of Season Two: Echoes of Skyrim, and the season runs until Jan. 27, 2027.

Season One ends earlier the same day, at 10 a.m. ET, so there’s a three-hour gap between the two seasons. Season One’s Premium Tome stays on sale until then, and buying it keeps your access to its Thieves Guild rewards, including the Hew’s Bane Hyena mount, after the season ends.

What’s in Season Two: Echoes of Skyrim

Season Two is built around Tamriel’s monster slayers and the Nord homeland. It brings solo versions of the Moon Hunter Keep and March of Sacrifices dungeons, a new Tamriel Tome of rewards, and a run of seasonal events and Golden Pursuits campaigns through January. ZeniMax says more Skyrim content is moving to the base game as part of the season.

Like all seasonal content, the new experiences are free for every ESO player. Only the Premium versions of the Tome cost extra.

Greymoor and Wolfhunter are free

ZeniMax opened the door two days early. On Oct. 19, the Greymoor Chapter and the Wolfhunter dungeon DLC moved to ESO’s base game, at no cost to any player. That covers the Western Skyrim zone and its storyline, the depths of Blackreach, the Antiquities system for digging up relics, the 12-player trial Kyne’s Aegis, and the two four-player Wolfhunter dungeons themed around Hircine’s cursed followers.

The Antiquities system got a round of quality-of-life improvements before the move, and Verita Numida in Solitude gets you digging. To start Greymoor, open the Collections menu, select Stories and pick Greymoor under Chapters. The two group dungeons are in the Dungeon Finder.

Solo dungeons and Meted Misfortunes

The headline feature is a new way to play two fan favorites alone. The solo versions of Moon Hunter Keep and March of Sacrifices adapt mechanics designed for groups so one player can handle them, and you can bring a companion, which some mechanics target directly. Without modifiers, a typical overland build gets you through.

For more challenge, a pile of armor and weapons at each entrance lets you activate Meted Misfortunes. Each one adds its own effect, such as Warm Welcome, which doubles incoming damage, and raises monster and boss stats. Stack three for Dauntless, the hardest difficulty.

Rewards scale with the risk. Solo runs pay out the new Undaunted Crest currency, which you trade with Veya Thenim in the Undaunted Enclaves, plus two new two-piece monster sets, style pages, furnishings, Nowhere Keys and legendary companion gear.

Season Two Tamriel Tome rewards

The free track of the Season Two Tome, open to everyone with no purchase, includes 8,000 Seals, 9,000 Trade Bars, several Crown Crates, the Maarselok Slayer weapon style set and the Shagrath’s Web skin. Free rewards stay available until Jan. 27.

The Premium Tome adds 1,500 more Trade Bars, the Azureblight Recall customized action, the Maarselok Slayer Mammoth mount and upgraded Maarselok Slayer weapon styles, and you keep access to it after the season ends. Premium + Bonuses adds two Caches of Tome Points and the Patched Tabby Cat pet.

ZeniMax also changed how Tomes roll over. Leftover Tome Points carry into the next season up to 5,000, up from 2,000, enough to unlock two and a half pages of the Season Two Tome at once, and points beyond the cap convert to 25 gold each, up from 10.

Witches Festival starts the same day

The Witches Festival returns at 10 a.m. ET on Oct. 21 and runs until Nov. 4. It gives a 100% bonus to all XP, and the first boss you defeat each day drops a legendary Dremora Plunder Skull with 300 Trade Bars. With the two daily event quests, you can earn up to 10 legendary skulls a day, with new Zhekleg style pages in the loot.

Price and platforms

The Elder Scrolls Online costs $19.99 on Steam on Oct. 21, 2026, for the base game, which includes Greymoor and Wolfhunter. It’s also on PS5, Xbox Series X and S and Mac, and it’s included with Game Pass; our new Game Pass games page lists Echoes of Skyrim among Xbox’s Oct. 21 perks. For the next single-player Elder Scrolls game, see our Elder Scrolls 6 release date page, and for Skyrim itself on Nintendo’s console, our Skyrim on Switch 2 page.

This page is updated as soon as ZeniMax Online Studios publishes the Season Two patch notes and new event dates.